In a game that many considered to be a “must win,” Powell River Villa defeated the top seed of its Vancouver Island Soccer League division two, Lakehill Reds 2, 1-0 on Sunday, February 3, at Timberlane Park.
Villa is one of five teams fighting to avoid relegation and of the five it was probably the team to go down, if it had lost to the Reds.
A win would have propelled the Reds ahead of its bitter rival, Lakehill United 2, and increased its odds of winning a division title and a move up to division one.
Cool and breezy conditions greeted the two teams at Timberlane, but Villa came out on fire when Sean Jenkins made a number of great runs early in the game.
He was in fine form as he attacked the Reds’ net from both sides in the first 10 minutes and forced a good save on the left while narrowly missing the net on the right.
In fact, he was so effective that transfixed defenders left other Villa snipers open for scoring opportunities.
On a nice feed from Jordan Peters, Ben Elliot had a blast blocked from 18 yards and a minute later a nice cross from Nick van’t Schip was headed just a foot wide by Jake Kenmuir.
The Reds players weren’t just standing around but certainly from the pace set down by Villa, onlookers would have had difficulty separating the bottom team from the top one.
At 30 minutes, Villa finally capitalized on one of its opportunities to score.
Awarded a free kick from just outside the 18-yard line, Mario Paul chipped his shot over the wall and the ball sailed into the net beyond the outstretched hands of the keeper.
Now called upon to defend the lead, Villa continued to play with the same pace and added some grit to its game.
Chris McDonough took a direct hit from a ball to his face and then seconds later was elbowed by a Reds player, also to his face.
He, like the other 10 Villa players, however, shook it off and was of one mind, focused solely on preventing the Reds from scoring.
Villa was in the same position a couple of weeks ago against Lakehill United 2 and gave up its lead after falling back.
In this game, after a strong start in the second half and a couple of more great chances by Jenkins, Villa gradually began to sag under the pressure of the Reds.
The slight shift in possession lasted about 10 minutes, but Villa regrouped and pushed back in the last 20 minutes to capture a well-deserved 1-0 shutout.
“They had to win that game to seal the league,” said coach Jamie Zroback of the Reds, “so I knew that they were coming for us today. Now, with this result, it has thrown a whole wrench into the league. For us a loss would have had the Reds playing Gorge [United 2] next week and we wouldn’t want our fate in their hands. Now they need to beat Gorge to seal the league.”
Of the win, Zroback said, “We had a good group of guys today that have been with the organization for a while and we did it as a team.”
The win improves their situation but the Villa players still have to travel to Nanaimo this week to stay out of trouble.
“This is in our hands now,” said Zroback, “so this is great and we’re going to go to Nanaimo and try to get those points and hopefully keep this rolling right into the Jackson Cup.”
First things first and it starts with the game in Nanaimo against United FC 2 at noon on Sunday, February 10.
Team Standings
Rank Team GP W L T GF GA Diff Pts
1 Lakehill United 2 15 6 1 8 16 9 7 26
1 Lakehill Reds 2 15 8 5 2 21 14 7 26
3 Cowichan United 2 15 7 6 2 22 16 6 23
4 GH Blazers 2 15 7 6 2 26 26 0 23
5 Saanich Fusion FC 2 15 5 4 6 20 19 1 21
6 Nanaimo United FC 2 13 5 5 3 19 20 -1 18
7 Vic West Wolves 2 16 5 8 3 20 28 -8 18
8 Powell River Villa 2 14 3 7 4 13 18 -5 13
9 Gorge United 2 14 3 7 4 18 25 -7 13
